GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – One thing that stands out from meeting the Packers’ new defensive boss is that the vision for that side of the ball? Is to have players’ vision to the ball to generate a ton of takeaways. But that’s not to say that Jeff Hafley doesn’t love playing press man coverage and getting aggressive when that’s called for.
“If we’ve got guys who can press, lets line up and get hands on people,” said new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. “I think that’s important. You’ve got a guy who can play a zone third, who can read 2 to 1, lets do it and go get the ball. The things I believe in, in defense, is whether you are playing 4-3, 3-4, press man, which I do love, zone coverage with vision and break, quarters, match, it comes down to can you put the players you have in the best position to succeed. We try and make it simple for the players so they can play fast. So they don’t have to think. So they can be confident and not be afraid to make mistakes. So they can go out there and play fearless and play with their hair on fair and run and hit and cover and get off blocks and tackle. That’s the beauty of the scheme.”
And on the very back end of the defense, the post safety as Hafley calls it, will be big with this scheme. Hafley has been a secondary and defensive backs coach before in the NFL and knows the importance of that position.
“I want a guy who can erase things,” Hafley said. “We have to eliminate explosive plays when we play this defense. So if a run hits up the middle, this guy has to come out of the middle of the field with his hair on fire and gets the guy down. I also want him to be a guy, when a ball carrier is wrapped up, he goes in and finishes off the pile. I want a guy who can go from sideline to sideline and takes the ball away. I think that position has to be a guy with high ball production.”
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what we gleaned from Hafley, who met with the media for more than half an hour.
